Shōwa

Beside the entrance of Nishimuraya Honkan stands the Ohiroma-to, rebuilt after the 1925 quake. Its eighty-mat hall spans a Western truss under a coffered ceiling.

The Hirata Wing at Nishimuraya Honkan was designed in 1960 by Hirata Masaya, a sukiya master. Its rooms share a single garden through sightlines that never cross.

At the south front of Nishimuraya Honkan stand a large yakuimon gate and an early-Showa wall. Local basalt, the stone that named nearby Genbudo, lines the wall's base.

Discover the main hall of Honjuji Temple, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in the heart of Kinosaki Onsen, Hyogo Prefecture. Rebuilt in 1931 after the devastating 1925 Kita-Tajima Earthquake, this Nichiren Buddhist temple features exquisite coffered ceilings and dragon carvings by the renowned Matsumoto school of Banshu Shikama.

A 1928 reinforced concrete gate with four posts on the Nitta estate in Nishinomiya, set back from the road to frame the approach to the Onzan Memorial Hall villa.

A 1928 concrete storehouse on the Nitta estate in Nishinomiya, north of the villa, designed by Kigo Shichiro to match the main house of the Onzan Memorial Hall.

A 151-meter reinforced concrete wall around the Nitta estate in Nishinomiya, its washed-aggregate finish suiting the Western-style villa of the Onzan Memorial Hall.

Originally the servants' quarters of the Nitta estate in Nishinomiya, this 1928 wooden outbuilding by architect Kigo Shichiro is part of the Onzan Memorial Hall.

A wartime reinforced concrete air-raid shelter on the Nitta estate in Nishinomiya, part of the Onzan Memorial Hall, with double blast doors and a domed ceiling.

A 1928 Spanish-style villa in Nishinomiya, home of industrialist Nitta Chojiro, founder of Matsuyama University's forerunner, designed by Kigo Shichiro.

Built in 1933 with funds donated by Kano Jihei VII of Hakutsuru Sake Brewery, Mikage Public Hall in Kobe's Higashinada Ward is a registered tangible cultural property designed by architect Shimizu Eiji. A striking example of early-Showa modernism that survived both the 1945 Kobe air raids and the 1995 Hanshin earthquake, the building is also famous as the hall depicted in Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. Its basement restaurant has served classic Western-style cuisine since opening day.

Located in the historic hot spring town of Kinosaki Onsen in Toyooka, Hyogo, the Mikiya West Wing is a two-story wooden inn building completed in 1927 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014. It preserves the character of the post-earthquake reconstruction era and remains in active use as part of the celebrated ryokan where novelist Shiga Naoya wrote At Kinosaki.

Standing at the heart of Kinosaki Onsen in Toyooka, Hyogo, Mikiya Higashi-kan is the three-story wooden ryokan, completed in 1927, where the novelist Shiga Naoya wrote his celebrated short story "At Kinosaki." With its refined proportions, 300-tsubo Japanese garden, and the striking boat-bottom ceiling of its third-floor banquet hall, the building embodies early-Shōwa ryokan architecture and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2014.

The 1930 Kōshien Hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright's protégé Endō Arata is now a Mukogawa Women's University campus and registered cultural property in Hyōgo.

Artist Watanuki Kōsuke's 1969 Kobe tea room. A ceramic cookpot crowns its pyramid roof; inside, an umbrella ceiling, bamboo-screen shoji, and a sunken hearth depart from every rule of orthodox tea architecture. Registered Cultural Property since 2023.

Momoshima Bridge is a small reinforced concrete pedestrian bridge across the Otani River in the heart of Kinosaki Onsen, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture. Built in December 1926 as part of the town's recovery from the 1925 North Tajima Earthquake, its distinctive bow-shaped profile, lantern-topped pillars, and four small giboshi finials blend modern engineering with traditional Japanese aesthetics. It was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2015 and remains an emblem of Kinosaki's iconic streetscape.

Discover Yutoya Ryokan's registered storehouse, a dozo rebuilt after the 1925 North Tajima Earthquake on the grounds of a 330-year-old inn in Hyogo's historic Kinosaki Onsen.

Discover the Yutoya Ryokan Covered Walkway in Kinosaki Onsen — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property that blends refined sukiya aesthetics with playful hexagonal motifs inspired by the nearby Genbudo basalt caves.

The Main Hall of Renjoji Temple in Kinosaki Onsen, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, is a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple hall originally built in 1933 as the Oomoto religious movement's Kakumeiden hall. Relocated and adapted in 1936, it features a King Post Truss roof structure, an asymmetrical worship porch, and a distinctive cusped window, earning its registration as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017.

The Roy Smith House Garage, formerly the garage of the Otani Family Residence, stands at the northeast corner of a Spanish-style estate on the southern slopes of Mount Rokko in Nada Ward, Kobe. Built around 1935 as part of a trade merchant’s villa designed by architect Shimizu Eiji, this two-story wooden structure with a ground-floor garage and an upstairs chauffeur’s waiting room was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2011. The property is now owned by the Kobe University Rokkodai Fund. It is not open to the public, but visitors can appreciate the garage, the main house, and the long stone perimeter wall from the street outside.